This invention relates generally to interactive broadcasting which involves broadcasting television programming together with web content information.
Interactive broadcasting allows a television program to be coupled with other data services such as closed caption transcription services. The closed caption transcription may be streamed to the television receiver together with the television programming information. Generally, closed caption information is assigned a specific number of lines in the vertical blanking interval (VBI) and necessarily accompanies airwave television broadcasts. In addition, the closed caption information may be transmitted over cable and satellite systems together with the television programming. The closed caption information generally corresponds to a typed transcript of what is being said in the accompanying television program.
In an existing interactive broadcast system such as Intel's Intercast.RTM. Viewer 1.0, the closed caption information may be streamed together with the television programming and stored in a media library in the interactive broadcasting software of a receiving computer system. The receiving computer system could be, for example, a normal computer system with a television capture card or a set top computer which uses a television receiver to display television programming.
Interactive broadcasting is advantageous since the web content which accompanies the television program allows the user to interact with the television programming. This may mean that the user may respond over back channels to the television broadcaster. It also means that the user can use information conveyed in the web content portion of the broadcaster to better utilize the television programming.
It would be desirable to enable a computer receiver of an interactive broadcast to respond to the audio content of a television program automatically. This would enable the television viewer to interact in an active way with the television programming content.